HSBC embroiled in 'slit-eye row' over advert

HSBC has become embroiled in a race row after it dressed up an overweight white man to look like a Japanese sumo wrestler for its latest advert.

HSBC advert featuring sumo wrestler

By Jessica Salter

10:27AM BST 24 Aug 2008

The model called Brian, who stars in the bank's commercial with the tag line "Fixed savings rates that won't budge", had his skin darkened and is wearing make-up that makes his eyes look narrower, it has been claimed. He is pictured in a Japanese-style wig and a traditional mawashi belt.

The controversy comes after the Spanish Olympic basketball team sparked fury in China after appearing in newspaper adverts posing while making "slit-eyed" gestures.

Both the men's and women's teams were pictured smiling as they pulled back the skin on the side of their eyes, in a crude impersonation of Chinese people.

Days later a photo showing four members of Argentina's Olympic women's football team pulling the same pose emerged on the internet. Although there was no suggestion that any of the athletes intended to cause offence, the rows sparked by the photos have highlighted how standards about the acceptability of racial stereotyping vary widely between countries, even in the West.

Now HSBC, which calls itself "the world's local bank", has been accused by members of Britain's Japanese community of being "culturally insensitive".

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Godfrey King, director of the Anglo-Japanese Society of Wessex, said: "The fact that the picture depicts a sumo wrestler who is not actually a sumo wrestler, but has been made up to look like one, would be considered a high insult to the Japanese community. It is culturally insensitive.

"It has insulted the honour of our nation."

HSBC said that the Sumo wrestler was not meant to look like he came from a specific country but admitted that make-up had been applied to his face and eyes and that his skin tone had been made to appear more tanned.

A spokesperson said: "The only make-up and post-production applied is to even up our model's natural suntan from his arms and neck-line all over his body. Sumo wrestlers come from all over the world and the sport is particularly popular in central Europe right now.

"It's standard photography make-up - not to alter the ethnicity of the model in any way."

Sumo wrestling, which began in a competitive form in the 16th century as a performance to entertain the Shinto gods, is Japan's national sport. It attracts wrestlers from all over the world but the current grand champion is originally from Mongolia.

HSBC is one of the largest banks in the world, with about 9,500 offices in 85 countries, including several in Asia. It was formerly known as the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.